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Batavia restricts tattooing, piercing in downtown

Batavia is limiting the number of tattoo parlors in its downtown to two, and has enacted a law regulating how they and other “body art” establishments can operate.

The city council passed both measures Monday night.

The changes come after two tattoo and piercing businesses opened in the downtown, one on South Batavia Avenue and the other on East Wilson Street.

Body art businesses will only be allowed as conditional uses in the downtown mixed-use district, meaning anybody who wants to open such a business has to ask the city council for permission.

The city had considered banning body art businesses altogether for the downtown.

The new regulations require the businesses to be closed from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. There's to be no piercing or tattooing of intoxicated people, and nobody is to have any alcohol on the premises. People younger than 18 won't be able to get tattoos or other modifications unless their parent or guardian is present and has given written permission, with the exception of piercing of earlobes.

State law prohibits tattooing anyone younger than 18, or anyone who is intoxicated. It also prohibits piercing anyone younger than 18 without a guardian's permission, except for earlobe piercing.

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